APLA '10: Ecopetrol seeks partners for PE, PP and PET projects

09 November 2010 19:03  [Source: ICIS news]

RIO DE JANEIRO (ICIS)--Ecopetrol is seeking partners for polyolefins and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) projects as part of a proposed $3.5bn-5.5bn (€2.5bn-4.0bn) olefins complex at Cartagena in Colombia, an official at the Colombian state-owned energy group said on Tuesday.

Petrochemicals and industrial manager Felipe Trujillo said Ecopetrol was considering two options, either of which would be located in Cartagena, close to its refinery.

One would require investment of around $5.5bn and involve downstream plants for polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), plus an integrated aromatics and PET plant, he said.

The other option would require investment of around $3.5bn and involve downstream units for just PE and PP, he added.

Both projects would have the capacity to produce around 1m tonnes/year of PE and 430,000 tonnes/year of PP, Trujillo told ICIS on the sidelines of the Latin American Petrochemical Association (APLA) annual meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The proposed PET capacity was not immediately available.

Ecopetrol already has about 500,000 tonnes/year of PP capacity in Cartagena, Trujillo said.

The project was in the conceptual engineering phase and was expected to be completed at the end of 2016 or in 2017, said Trujillo.

Ecopetrol was continuing to study the scope of the project while it seeks joint venture partners, he added.

Output would meet local demand and would also be exported to other markets in South America and Central America, Trujillo said.

“We intend to become a very important regional player,” he added.

The APLA conference ran through Tuesday.

($1 = €0.72)

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By: Anna Jagger
+44 20 8652 3214

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